The Right Changes
by YouSentMeFlying
Summary: It was hard to tell where all of my surroundings were since my eyesight was so blurred; fresh, warm smoke surrounded my face. ONE SHOT


**I'm so awkward when it comes to writing in the first person. D:**

**So, I wrote this a while back originally as an EClare story but I ended up never posting it. But I changed it up a little and made it into an Imogeli one shot to help with writers block on another project. I figured I would post this anyway to keep my readers busy until I put up the first chapter of my new fanfiction **_**Sanctuary **_**which will be out in a few weeks as a Halloween special. :)**

A smoky haze covered the isolated room and the strong smell of whiskey burned off my throat. It was hard to tell where all of my surroundings were since my eyesight was so blurred; fresh, warm smoke surrounded my face. Imogen really should have left the balcony door open. But I didn't blame her for not doing so – you got a better high this way; letting the smoke stir around you furiously. After Imogen forced me to take a few more puffs of the pot, I got used to it. I felt my eyelids begin to grow heavy and I couldn't remember what I was doing earlier today. The marijuana cleared my head and memories much easier than alcohol ever had. I was pretty well baked, as stoners would put it.

We were halfway through our second hit and I was completely out of whiskey, yet I still threw my head back with the bottle up to my lips out of habit; waiting for the thickness to trickle down my throat slowly. Imogen hardly even got to drink any because I pretty much kept it all to myself and didn't want anyone to touch it.

She passed the joint over to me. The bright flame on the end looked like it began to grow larger and larger the longer I would stare at it. So I slowly took it away from Imogen's outstretched hand and brought it up to my lips, inhaling the substance and watching as the black smoke stirred off the end of the paper. The burning smoke rolled over my throat as I held my breath for several seconds to let more heaviness come over me. The feeling was absolutely amazing and I never wanted this to go away. I breathed out the smoke slowly and crossed my eyes as I watched it float up to the ceiling in circles, taking another quick puff from it and passing it back over to Imogen who had now disappeared completely under the smoky bubble. The feeling that came over me this time was much different than the others.

I felt it cover up my throat and roll down into my lungs, leaving a strong tingling feeling there as I dryly coughed up the smoke that was burning a hole in my lungs.

Imogen's voice echoed several times as she spoke and the ringing in my ears became louder. "We're almost out." She said as she passed it to me again. I didn't know if I should respond to the offer or push it back to her. So, I figured taking another hoot would be the better option. Or maybe that was just my high talking. Either way, I was unsure about what to do. "You going to take it or not?" I nod weakly and take it from her soft fingers, bringing it back up to take another drag. I blinked quickly and passed it over to her straight after, not even bothering to let more of this feeling wash over me before passing it back.

I hadn't even given it any thought about me getting home before Bullfrog and CeCe would be entirely pissed off at me. This was my life now. If they would just let me stay out as late as I wanted like before, they wouldn't have to be so angry all the time. And quite frankly, I would be in so much less trouble than I've been getting in.

Imogen coughed loudly, swatting away at the large cloud of gray smoke that was surrounding her face before placing the butt of the joint down on top of her Bible where the first one was lying beside it. I can't believe I just got stoned off of my ass with the hot neighbour that I've only known for two days. Well, it was after midnight…so that would technically be three days. Oh my god, I am so high.

I hadn't even noticed that Imogen was now behind me, opening up the balcony door so a large gust of wind blew into her room. My mind began to wonder so I suppose I didn't see her get up from in front of me.

The smoke started evaporating within the room and I could see things a little better now. Even though my vision was sometimes cloudy and sometimes normal, I felt a bit relieved that I could see what was in front of my face.

I arose to my feet; my head spinning. It was going to be a joyride trying to figure out how to keep my balance for the rest of the night. Until everything wore off, that is. The room spun around me and I gripped the edge of Imogen's bed for support. I could hear my blood pounding loudly and muffled behind my ears and my face grew very warm as did my chest. Was this supposed to happen when you did drugs?

A gentle hand touched my lower back and I flinched, whipping myself around a little too fast. My vision was still foggy and unstable as I started down into Imogen's brown eyes which were focused on my chest. She looked like I felt.

Imogen studied me for several heavy seconds, and I was beginning to wonder if she was okay or not. Her face was pale and her pupils were dilated but somehow I still found her incredibly gorgeous. Then her eyes finally met mine and she started giggling loudly. Was my face really that horrible and funny looking? Bummer. "Let's go outside," she laughed, grabbing my hand loosely in hers as she dragged me to the door that led onto the balcony. Everything continued to spin around me; my stomach was doing backflips and I could have sworn I just saw a tall clown with blood dripping from his mouth in the far right corner. Hallucinations were quite entertaining.

Once we were outside, the cool breeze of the summer night air stung my burning hot face and relieved the nauseous feeling that came over me when we were still inside. It was so dark out and it was impossible to see anything. All of the lights in my house across the lawn were off so I assumed everyone was in bed. It was hard to tell what time it was, but given that both CeCe and Bullfrog were in bed, it had to be really late. They would be super pissed off at me tomorrow morning so I might as well start working on a story now if I wanted to get by with a warning. Ha. Who am I kidding? I'm stoned as all hell right now; there's no possible way I could come up with a story that was believable tonight. "Plane!" Imogen shouted, pointing up to the sky where a jet was passing overhead the house. "Pretty, huh?" she giggled and lowered her arm back to her side.

I gaped in amazement at its beauty as it flew over top of us. The lights flashed brightly and bizarrely just before it made a sharp right turn in its flight. The way the blue, red and yellow lights flickered off of it put me in a daze. I felt myself staring at it – I watched as it flew off into the sky until it was no longer in my sight. "I wonder if Idaho is a good place to live."

Clare laughed. "That's a funny word."

"What is?"

"Idaho." She smiled widely. "Like…I da hoe, man," she said in a quite attractive, high pitched voice. Twirling her hair between her fingers, she let out another laugh and sighed in amusement. "I am so high," she almost whispered.

I slung my arm around her shoulder and pulled her into my chest, unaware of what I was doing. I would never do this if I was sober. I would be way too terrified to even try to touch her; so there were some perks for smoking illegal substances. "I hadn't noticed." I laughed, inhaling the smell of her cherry vanilla shampooed hair.

A loud bang came from behind us; the sound of a door slamming open and a loud whimper. I was almost afraid to see what it was, but I knew I had to look sometime. So I slowly turned around to face Imogen's bedroom with her still between my arms. Once a tall, middle-aged woman appeared in our sight, Imogen quickly pushed me away from her and stood up straight.

She brushed a strand of hair out of her face before speaking. "Mom. You're home." She said quickly, blinking her dry and bloodshot eyes several times. I could tell she was trying not to make eye contact with her mother; she was probably afraid that she knew we had been getting high in here. As if the remains of the weed and empty whiskey bottle sitting on the floor in main view wasn't enough to tell her we had been partying.

"Yeah, I'm home," the brown haired woman scoffed. "Who is this boy?"

"I'm…Eli," I swallowed. "I'm your new neighbour."

"Good to know," she told me sarcastically, folding her arms over her chest. She was mad. I could see it in her eyes that she was seriously pissed off and there was nothing I could do about it to cover for Imogen. I knew partying with her tonight was a bad idea, that it would have bad consequences and someone would get either hurt or in loads of trouble. Why didn't I try to talk her out of it the second I saw her rolling the weed? "Imogen, tell me something. Have you been smoking in here?"

I shook my head slowly. "No, she wasn't."

The woman took a few steps forward, keeping her eyes on me as she approached us. Imogen kept her head down, her eyes were closed and I could hear her breathing heavily at my side. "I wasn't asking _you._" She was standing right in front of us now. Her dark brown eyes pierced into mine.

"Yes, mom," Imogen piped up quickly. "I was lighting up in here with Eli while you were at work. After I put Jessica to bed, we came in here and enjoyed ourselves. Yeah, I actually had a good time with a friend while you were out taking your clothes off for perverted, horny old men. News flash, mom. Being a prostitute is _not _a job." I had no idea that…Jane; I believe her name is was a stripper. That would actually explain a lot; like why she didn't get home until early in the morning. I was still wondering what time it was.

Jane raised her hand slowly, and flung it forward so it landed at the side of Imogen's face. A loud smacking sound echoed off of the balcony and my mouth dropped open. I wasn't going to stand here and watch Imogen's mom beat the crap out of her – no matter how stoned and confused I was – I had to do something about this. "Hey, you don't touch her like that!" I shouted. But I should have known speaking up would do nothing to change the matter or the act of it happening.

"How dare you say something like that about me!" Jane yelled loudly. I looked down at Imogen who had her hand up to her cheek where a red handprint was beginning to form. Tears filled her eyes and I felt like it was time to cut this bitch. If she weren't a woman, I would have knocked her to the floor by now. What she did to Imogen was way out of line. "And how dare you do pot in the same house as your daughter with some guy you hardly know? You're a horrible mother."

"_She's _the horrible mother?" I laughed humourously. Imogen's freehand landed down on my shoulder. Her eyes were laced over with tears and she stared up at me; pleading that I didn't say anything. I had to. Shaking my head, I looked back up at Jane. I couldn't even look at this woman without feeling so disgusted. "Maybe she does this because she can't deal with you," I sneered. "You _hit _her and you're not the bad one in this situation? Why don't we take your ass to court and see who loses this battle?"

"Eli, stop." Imogen begged.

I wasn't going to let Imogen and her daughter stay here with this monster. I would let them take my room and I would sleep on the couch if I had to; but there's no way I would leave Imogen alone with her tonight. "It's her words against mine."

I smirked deviously. "Your words? I'm surprised you would have a dick out of your mouth long enough to say something at the stand. Or…wait; is that how you get the judge to plead you not guilty? By giving him a blowie?"

"Enough, Eli!" Imogen hissed as she pulled back on my arm.

"We're going over to my house. Get Jessica and let's go," I directed. I really hated pushing people around like this, but if it was a serious matter like this one, it was my only option. She just stared up at me, looking at me like I was fucking insane or something. I wouldn't be surprised if she thought I had completely lost everything. I was starting to believe that these days.

Sighing heavily, she walked around Jane with her head hung low. She really didn't want to leave with me, I could see that. But I wasn't taking no for an answer. If her mom wasn't the one to protect her, it had to be me.

Once she left the room, I looked back up at Jane and she glared down at me. "You're not taking her from me." she said lowly so Imogen couldn't hear what she was saying. This woman was fucking crazy if she thought what she was doing to her daughter was normal. No one deserved to get hit. Especially not a teenage girl who only made a few major mistakes in her life.

"What you're doing to her…it's illegal. If you were smart at all, you would know that. People like you are _sick._" I drew out the last word loudly, making sure she got what I was trying to tell her before I brushed past her quickly to go and find Imogen. I know she was scared as hell right now. Seeing her friend fight with her mother, then practically call her a whore straight to her face; to threaten to take her to court and steal Imogen away from her family. But that's not what I was trying to say. I'm stoned as all hell right now and things aren't coming out right. Like Jane said, Imogen hardly knew me. But I guess she would just have to get used to me because I was keeping her away from her crazy mother until we could do something about it. Maybe we should testify against her…but I wasn't going to make that decision for Imogen, of course. It wasn't my say to do something that huge.

Once I stepped into the hallway, I caught Imogen out of the corner of my eye. She was walking out of her daughter's room, struggling to carry Jessica and a bunch of bags at the same time. Anyone could see that Imogen was a good mother. She raised her well and I already knew that Jessica would grow up to be a nice young lady…I'm starting to sound like my mother. "Let me help you," I offered, taking slow steps up to Imogen who just pulled away from me.

"I got it,"

"Mommy, what's going on?" Jessica asked her with a groggy voice. Imogen continued to struggle with Jess' things so she sat her down on the floor, ignoring her daughter's questions completely. I felt really bad about doing this now. Maybe Imogen had the whole thing with her mom under control; maybe Jane barely even touched her and she was doing it to get Imogen to pay attention to what she was saying. I knew nothing about this family. The only this I knew was that Imogen's ex left her alone while she was pregnant and that her and her mom got into a lot of arguments. That didn't mean she was abusive, did it?

Without even asking, I slowly bent down to place my hands under Jessica's arms and pick her up quickly; balancing her on my right hip. Imogen just stared up and me and shook her head. It was as if she didn't want me touching her daughter or helping her out with any of this. Jessica tucked her head into the crook of my neck and I pulled her closer to my chest. Maybe I could get used to kids. Obviously, not all of them were very obnoxious; Jessica was a sweetheart.

"What the hell were you even thinking, Eli?" Imogen screamed at me once we were up in my room. It was sometime after three in the morning; Bullfrog and CeCe were still asleep and I had woken up my brother to let him know Jessica was sleeping in his room tonight. I wasn't about to tell Imogen to keep her voice down because that would make her even more pissed off at me. I could deal with my parents in the morning if she woke them up, I guess.

"I'm sorry, okay?" by this time, the high had pretty much worn off completely. "I just felt like I had to help you out. You're my friend and should be allowed to care about you when you're in trouble."

Imogen pinched the bridge of her nose tightly and turned around so she could face the wall. "You don't know me, Eli. You can't just threaten my mom like you did." She whispered as she stared at the black paint on the walls of my bedroom that was beginning to fade to a grayish colour. I really needed to repaint this room before school started.

"She hurt you, what was I supposed to do?"

"Let me deal with it!" she screamed, flinging herself around so she could face me again. There was hurt in her eyes. The light of my ceiling fan shone down on her and I could see that she was in pain. "I've been handling this for the past three years, so I don't need any help now."

I shook my head and looked down at the carpet beneath my feet. It looked like I had tracked mud into the house…great, just what I needed from CeCe. Her yelling at me for not taking my shoes off before coming into the house. Wait, what? That's irrelevant right now. "What if she hurt Jess?" I asked her in barely a whisper. I hated to bring this up but it was the only example that I had to use against her. To tell Imogen that what her mom was doing to her wasn't at all was right for her to do.

"She…how can you even say that?"

"How would you feel? What if…your mom was watching her one day and she did something to make her mad? What if she lost it for just a split second?"

"She wouldn't do that."

"I bet you said the same thing before she started doing this to you."

She paused for a moment and examined over my room carefully. She was taking in the depths of the dark, gothic looking room as she racked her brain to find what she wanted to say. But it was like she kept coming up with blanks. "Me and Jess are sleeping here tonight. Then first thing in the morning, we're going home. You don't get to make our decisions for us; that's my job. Got it?"

I just shook my head again and gestured her to lie down in my messy, unmade bed. She was being ridiculous, but it seemed like there was no way to calm her down for two seconds to have her listen to me. I can't just make these decisions for her to stop seeing her mom; I know that. All I was trying to tell Imogen was to talk to someone – I didn't at all mean my parents would take custody of her. Everything I was trying to say was coming out wrong and a hundred percent worse then what I was meaning to say. But I've never gone through the same things Imogen has so I should just give up and let her do what she wanted. It was looking like whatever I told her didn't make an impact anyway.

Flicking off the light, I walked out the door and shut it quietly behind me. There was no way I was going to be able to get any sleep tonight so I might as well stay up and eat or something. Maybe I could get some writing done tonight – I still had to come up with an ending of the horror story I was working on so I could do that to keep me busy. Before going down the stairs, however; I cracked open the door to check on the kids before getting deep into my story. Jessica was already fast asleep on the floor where she was covered in blankets. My brother was asleep, too. But he was tossing and turning several times to get comfortable in the right position. I closed the door all the way and headed down the stairs.

As I walk down the staircase, I notice the light of the kitchen was on so I knew that someone had to of been awake. It was either CeCe and Bullfrog and whoever it was, they were probably pissed for waking them up at three in the morning; shouting.

I picked up my notebook that was sitting on the couch in the living room and continued my journey to the kitchen. The notebook I had in my hands was what I wrote my stories in. Well, the first two drafts, anyway. I had been working on it after getting back from meeting Imogen for the first time and I guess I forgot to bring it back up to my room.

I rounded the final corner and saw CeCe leaning against the counter with a glass of water in her hand. Her hair was up in a messy ponytail, she had no makeup on and Bullfrogs long robe wrapped around her small body where a nightgown was peeking up over the top. It would only be a matter of time before she started going off; asking why I was out so late and getting huffy about the arguing that was going on up in my room. I remember when she never gave a care in the world as to what I did or who I was with. She never used to yell at me, and I would never get in trouble with her. Then Julia died and things changed. _We_ _all _changed.

"What are you doing up?" she asked me quietly, placing the glass of water down on the gray countertop. I approached her slowly and leaned against the counter next to her. She looked tired. Her eyes were bloodshot and she just looked terrible. "And who's upstairs?"

I sighed. "Imogen and her daughter. I just got back from her house and things got a little out of hand there with her mom. They're staying here for the night."

"The new neighbour? She has a kid?" she asked me in disbelief.

I just nodded weakly in response but she looked down at me, giving me a look that told me she wanted more details about what happened. I had to tell her sooner or later, otherwise she would probably ground me for two months. I would just have to extend the truth a bit. "Her mom is a prostitute. That's her job…how she supports her family. I suppose Imogen's dad walked out on her or something since I've never seen him around and she doesn't mention him. Her mom hits her. And she did this in front of me so I told her off and brought Imogen over here to stay with us."

The look she gave me showed she was not happy about me proving the knowledge I already had. Reaching out, I picked up the water on the counter in front of me and took a long sip before placing it down on the table.

CeCe smiled up at me and touched my face gently, running her fingers though my thick hair. "I know you miss Julia," she said sympathetically. What Imogen has gone through had nothing to do with Julia and CeCe should know that. I would never compare another girl to my first real girlfriend. "But, baby boy, you don't need to be so protective over this girl."

"I'm just trying to help."

"And I'm sure she appreciates that," CeCe told me truthfully as she pulled her hand from my face. I could see a long speech coming from her soon. "It's not your job to deal with this. You're just a kid."

I scoffed. "So what am I supposed to do, CeCe? Just let her mom hit her some more?"

CeCe shook her head, looking down at the tile of the kitchen floor before she spoke up again. "It's not your place to take girls from their mothers. You should talk to Imogen first. See what's best for her and find out if she even wants something to be done with this. Sure, what her mom does is illegal, but you can't be the one who determines that Imogen should be taken away from her." She took a deep breath and looked up at me again. I could feel a lump in my throat begin to grow as I tried to swallow it down but I was having no luck. Hopefully this didn't lead me to a panic attack. "Eli, that's for the court to decide. Talk to her tomorrow, alright? But I don't want you to push her into anything."

"If she'll even talk to me."

She let out a laugh. "Eli, she's a girl. All girls get pissed off at a guy for something so small but then they come back to you."

"I hope you're right."

"I'm going back to bed," she placed a gentle kiss on my forehead and pulled me into a large embrace. I didn't respond to it, though; this was the first time since Julia died that we've actually bonded and had these talks. It made me realize how much I really missed spending time with my mom.


End file.
